Religion, Spirituality, and Counseling Psychology

Globalization has initiated an evolution in the Western approach to mental health. The once narrow Western notion of mind-body connection is now expanded to a more holistic approach of caring that includes mind, body, and spirit. Religion and spirituality have become key elements to the therapeutic process. Today clients, particularly immigrants originally from the southern and eastern parts of the world, provide spiritual and religious explanations for their psychological distress. Clients refer to disappointing the ancestors, detaching from their spirit, or having a blanket over their souls. These explanations of psychological distress may be foreign to Western therapists, but these explanations are practical accounts for mental health crises in many cultures. Instead of Western therapists pathologizing clients’ realities, this is an opportunity for therapists to encourage spiritual exploration to form therapeutic alliances and healing. This chapter discusses the need for Western therapists to be open to traditional beliefs and practices. The chapter provides a literature review of the perturbed relationship Western counseling psychology has with religion and spirituality. The chapter refers to a study conducted by one of the authors that revealed how religion and spirituality played a significant role in shaping many Black Canadian women’s experience of depression. The chapter introduces the importance of building strong partnerships with spiritual healers and religious leaders. It also discusses the importance of establishing well-structured guidelines for therapists to be competent and comfortable in the engagement of clients’ religion and spirituality. Finally, the chapter provides practical strategies to Western therapists to incorporate clients’ religious and spiritual knowledge in conjunction with evidence-based interventions as part of the healing modality.